Spencer set to take on the world
Tom Spencer was introduced to the world of adventure racing by some high school friends. His first reaction wasn’t quite what you’d expect from someone set to represent New Zealand.
‘‘Some mates asked me if I wanted to do this 12-hour race involving mountainbiking and running and navigating. I was like ‘no, that’s a really stupid idea’,’’ the 21-year-old said.
He took part anyway, jumping on a mountainbike and training in orienteering in preparation, and hasn’t looked back.
Now seven years later, and having competed in a number of high-level events, Spencer, from Egmont Village, was named the New Zealand mountainbike (MTB) orienteer of the year and will fly to Austria next year for the MTB orienteering world championships.
‘‘That was a surprise, I guess. I won the nationals for the last two year in the long race and I guess that was enough. There’s a lot of good competition out there, so it keeps everyone hot on their toes.’’
MTB orienteering is an adventure sport where riders must navigate their way around a course, with map reading and route choice being two of the key components in getting home first.
There are usually three distances: a sprint, which can be around a 20-40-minute race; a middle distance which is around an hour; and a long distance which can take anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours.
‘‘It’s like foot orienteering but fast and more fun,’’ Spencer said.
Since his first big event in 2013, Spencer has been a staple in events around New Zealand and has also travelled to Australia to compete.
Now living in Dunedin studying to become a doctor, Spencer has been juggling studies with training for the past three years. with three years left at university, he said he had no plans to stop competing in the sport.
‘‘It’s reasonably hard and it does make training for everything a lot more difficult ... it can be quite limiting sometimes, but usually it’s all right.’’
Spencer will be one of two Kiwis to compete at the world championships in Austria next August, and said he wasn’t overly sure what to expect.
‘‘I’d love to get in the top 30, especially as a world’s debut, that would be a pretty solid goal. There’s one other New Zealander who’s been selected to go over, so it would be good to beat him as well.’’